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CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
T
he point of racing—enter-
tainment and hedonism
aside—must be to seek
and find continual improvement,
to further the development of
motorcycle engineering.
To put it another way, to go
faster.
An ambition that has, over the
years, continued to be achieved,
sometimes in leaps and bounds,
sometimes with patient prog-
ress. But always forward. Me-
chanical, electronic and financial
dumb downs notwithstanding,
lap times continue to drop and
top speeds to rise. For example,
Zarco's and Ducati's record
225.2 mph set in March at Losail
is likely to tumble in a couple of
weeks at Mugello.
But when does it become too
much?
The question is not entirely
frivolous. Racing in 2021 has
raised concerns in several di-
verse areas.
The first disquiet came in the
opening rounds in Losail, with
record-close top-15 in MotoGP
(just over 8.9 seconds), and
at least one lucky escape from
high-speed disaster, when
Jack Miller and Joan Mir twice
clashed at speed. This peril was
heavily underlined by Moto3's
pack of 20 or more crawling over
one another, after a rear-end col-
lision at close to top speed. Ro-
drigo's brake protector snapped
off, but it mercifully if narrowly
did its job. Had he looped over
the handlebars at the front of
the jostle, the consequences
would have been life-threatening
for a number of teenagers yet to
reach voting age.
There was more at the last
round at Jerez.
One aspect was headlined
by Marc Marquez barreling into
the air-fence at turn seven. This
is an unusual place for a crash.
Last year, over two weekends
of racing, there was just one fall
recorded there. This year, there
were five in a single weekend,
Too Fast?
Too Close? Or
Just Right?
Jerez joined the calendar in 1987, and winner Wayne
Gardner's Honda NSR500's lap record was at 84.9 mph.
In 2021, his son Remy set Moto2 pole at 98.2 mph.
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